Elliott Carter: Quintets and Voices

Track Listings
1. Fragment II * (1999)ΚΚΚ(4:31)    
2. Quintet for Piano & Strings * (1997)ΚΚΚ(14:56)    
3. Syringa (1978)ΚΚΚ(19:11)    
4. Tempo e Tempi (1998)ΚΚΚ    
5. Tempo e Tempi (1998)JJJ    
6. Tempo e Tempi (1998)JJJ    
7. Tempo e Tempi (1998)JJJ    
8. Tempo e Tempi (1998)JJJ    
9. Tempo e Tempi (1998)JJJ    
10. Tempo e Tempi (1998)JJJ    
11. Tempo e Tempi (1998)JJJ    
12. Quintet for Piano & Winds (1991)ΚΚΚ(22:08)    
13. Retrouvailles (2000)ΚΚΚ(1:51)    

Editorial Reviews
Album Description
Released to celebrate the 95th birthday of Elliott Carter this year - an amazing figure who remains one of America's most active and vital composers. This collection combines two of his quintets with two major works for voice(s) and ensemble, and two recent, extraordinary miniatures. SPECIAL FEATURES: * The recordings were made by artists who have had a long association with Carter's music. * Elliott Carter supervised all of the recordings. * The Quintet for Piano & Strings was recorded by its dedicatees immediately after its premiere tour. * Fragment II was specially written for The Arditti Quartet as a gift by Carter in honor of their winning the prestigious Siemens Prize. * Liner notes by Carter specialist Paul Griffiths. * Debut recording of one of New York's finest new music groups, Ensemble Sospeso.

Elliott Carter: Quintets and Voices, Music, Andre Solomon-Glover, Frank Morelli, Charles Niedich, Elliott Carter, Jeffrey Milarsky, Stefan Asbury, Ensemble Sopeso, William Purvis, Stephen Taylor, Ursula Oppens, Lucy Shelton, Chamber, Chamber Music & Recitals, Classical, Classical Composers, Keyboard, Keyboard Work with Descriptive or Unclassified Title, Quartet for Four String Instruments, Quintet For Piano And Four Woodwinds, Quintet for Keyboard and Four String Instruments, Solo Voice(s) and Small Ensemble, Two Solo Voices with Small Ensemble, Vocal
Elliott Carter: Quintets and Voices
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • Great collection of mostly late Carter
  • the 1990s chamber works are phenomenal
  • What Bob Dylan Meant by "Forever Young"
 Elliott Carter: Quintets and Voices

Manufacturer: Mode
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

QuartetsQuartets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
QuintetsQuintets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
All Works by CarterAll Works by Carter | Carter, Elliott | ( C ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
Chamber MusicChamber Music | Forms & Genres | Classical (c.1770-1830) | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Keyboard | Instruments | Classical | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Classical | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
Similar Items:
  1. The Music of Elliott Carter Vol. 7; Boston Concerto, Cello Concerto, ASKO Concerto, Dialogues
  2. Elliott Carter: The Complete music for Piano
  3. Elliott Carter: Eight Compositions
  4. The Music of Elliott Carter (Photos Not Included)
  5. The Ligeti Project IV: Hamburg Concerto (Horn Concerto) / Double Concerto / Ramifications / Requiem

ASIN: B0000CABCG
Release Date: 2003-12-09

Tracks:

  1. Fragment II * (1999)4:31)
  2. Quintet for Piano & Strings * (1997)14:56)
  3. Syringa (1978)19:11)
  4. Tempo e Tempi (1998)
  5. Tempo e Tempi (1998)JJJ
  6. Tempo e Tempi (1998)JJJ
  7. Tempo e Tempi (1998)JJJ
  8. Tempo e Tempi (1998)JJJ
  9. Tempo e Tempi (1998)JJJ
  10. Tempo e Tempi (1998)JJJ
  11. Tempo e Tempi (1998)JJJ
  12. Quintet for Piano & Winds (1991)22:08)
  13. Retrouvailles (2000)1:51)

Album Description

Released to celebrate the 95th birthday of Elliott Carter this year - an amazing figure who remains one of America's most active and vital composers. This collection combines two of his quintets with two major works for voice(s) and ensemble, and two recent, extraordinary miniatures. SPECIAL FEATURES: * The recordings were made by artists who have had a long association with Carter's music. * Elliott Carter supervised all of the recordings. * The Quintet for Piano & Strings was recorded by its dedicatees immediately after its premiere tour. * Fragment II was specially written for The Arditti Quartet as a gift by Carter in honor of their winning the prestigious Siemens Prize. * Liner notes by Carter specialist Paul Griffiths. * Debut recording of one of New York's finest new music groups, Ensemble Sospeso.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Great collection of mostly late Carter.......2006-06-27

This disc is one of a growing number to feature the recent chamber music of Elliott Carter, showing the considerable interest in his work that many musicians now have. Of most interest to Carter fans will be the world premiere recordings of Fragment II and the Quintet for Piano and Strings, both written for the Arditti Quartet, but it's also good to have fresh takes on the other works on this disc.

The disc opens with the brief Fragment II, written for the Arditti Quartet to celebrate their winning the Siemens Prize. Like the original Fragment, also written for the Ardittis, this is a predominantly slow-moving, atmospheric piece, making much use of glacial harmonics. More substantial is the following Quintet for Piano and Strings, played by Ursula Oppens and the Arditti Quartet. Like many of Carter's more substantial later works, this is in a single multi-sectional movement that encompasses a wide range of moods, with the strings and the pianist having distinctly different material: the piano brusquely atonal, the strings more lyrical.

The disc continues with two vocal works. Syringa, from 1978, is the earliest work on the disc, and in some ways from a different Carter. The music here is much more complex and abrasive, with two poems being set simultaneously, and the spiky ensemble including much use of an almost soloistic guitar part. This recording probably has somewhat less immediacy than the Speculum Musicae performance on Bridge, though arguably it has more warmth and tenderness, which helps to put a human face on what is rather austere music.

I doubt many people could complain about austerity in relation to the next work, the 1999 song cycle Tempo e tempi. This work, for soprano, violin, oboe, clarinet and cello, has to be one of Carter's most sensuous and tender, eight Italian poems (many very short) mostly of a nature more lyrical than dramatic. The whole work is written with a superbly light touch and contains some of Carter's most beautiful melodic writing--who says atonal music has to be joyless and academic? In a similar manner to the reading of Syringa, the performance here is perhaps less immediate than the rival Speculum Musicae reading, yet it is if anything warmer and more tender.

In contrast to Tempo e tempi, the Quintet for Piano and Winds is one of the most vigorous and dramatic of Carter's late works. As with the quintet with strings, the musical material varies between the instruments, the piano more vivacious (yet often brusque too), the horn more lyrical, the oboe, clarinet and bassoon playing a third type of material that lies somewhere in between those extremes. The whole work is conversational (in the sense that Ives' second quartet is), though the conversation often gets extremely animated and sometimes one participant almost totally takes over for a while. The work gets a fine reading, one that is particularly welcome given that the excellent recording with Andras Schiff, Heinz Holliger and others appears to be no longer available.

The disc is rounded off with a piece that effectively acts as a programmed-in encore: the brief Retrouvailles, a two-minute piano homage written for Pierre Boulez's 75th birthday.

Overall, this is a very welcome disc that shows off late Carter in a very good light. Fans will already have snapped it up for the first two pieces on the disc, but anyone wondering why Carter's music gets so much attention could do worse than start here (Tempo e tempi is a particularly fine introduction to late Carter, and the coupling here is much meatier than in the rival Bridge recording of it).

4 out of 5 stars the 1990s chamber works are phenomenal.......2005-08-07

This state-of-the-art Mode recording of (mainly) recent chamber works by Elliott Carter is phenomenal. Included are three outstanding works, the "Quintet for Piano and Strings" (1997 -- 14'56), the "Quintet for Piano and Winds" (1991 -- 22'08), and "Tempo e Tempi" (1998 -- 16'16) for a quintet of soprano, oboe, clarinet, violin and cello. Ursula Oppens and the Arditti Quartet perform the "Piano Quintet" beautifully. It is a great example of the clarity and (relative) simplicity of the late Carter -- truly remarkable. It was a tour performing this piece that led to the recording of this disc. The piano/winds quintet was written at the request of oboist Heinz Holliger, on the model of Mozart's K.452. The music is a rapid dialogue of three lines -- piano, horn, and reed trio. It's light, witty and engaging, very much in the spirit of Mozart. Finally, "Tempo e tempi" (Time and Times) sets to music the poetry of Eugenio Montale, and is Carter's tribute to Italy, where he has spent much time over the years. The eight short sections are sung by Lucy Shelton -- absolutely lovely.

Also included are two shorter works, "Fragment II" for string quartet, and "Retrouvailles" for piano, and both are charming. There is only one less-than-stellar element for me, and that is "Syringa," the 1978 vocal work for soprano (in English), baritone (in Greek), and ensemble, based on the story of Orpheus. The John Ashberry poem which is sung by the soprano is quite clever, archly modernist and self-conscious, but I don't find the music compelling.

This disc is a testimony to all involved, documenting at the highest level the astoundingly prolific Elliott Carter, who celebrated his 95th birthday in 2003!

4 out of 5 stars What Bob Dylan Meant by "Forever Young".......2003-12-14

After what seems like years of delay, Mode has released this CD of chamber and vocal music in time for Elliott Carter's 95th birthday, which fell on Dec. 11, 2003. It was worth the wait. The Quintet for Piano and Strings (1997) is one of the two or three pinnacles of Carter's prolific eighties. Though undeniably an example of the his late style, it harks back to the First Quartet (1951!) in its long-lined writing for strings. The music is expansive and concise, light-hearted and dramatic all at once, and it is played to perfection by Ursula Oppens and the Arditti Quartet, the performers for whom it was written. The Arditti also provides the first recording of the brief, haunting Fragment II for string quartet (not to be confused with the FIGMENT No. 2 for solo cello). For the rest, there is a fine performance of the Quintet for Piano and Winds (the third recording and just as good as either of the others), and two vocal pieces: Tempo e tempi from 1998, and Syringa from 1978, one of Carter's most powerful works, written when he was a young man of 69. Tempo e tempi, settings of eight texts in Italian, contains some of the loveliest, most sensuous music Carter has ever written. To my ear, soprano Lucy Shelton is not as warm or expressive as Katherine Ciesinski in Syringa (Bridge 9014), or as Susan Narucki in Tempo e Tempi (also Bridge, No. 9111), but the engineering on this recording is superb, and the clarity of instrumental detail alone makes these performances worth owning.

Track Listings:

  1. Ernst Levy Plays Beethoven, Liszt and Levy
  2. Erwartung / Brettl-Lieder (Cabaret Songs)
  3. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Oratorio Elijah
  4. For Lovers Only: The Romantic Pavarotti (Includes Bonus CD)
  5. Gautier De Coincy: Les Miracles de Nostre-Dame
  6. Grace Notes
  7. Great Pianists of the 20th Century - Selections from the definitive collection [Sampler]
  8. Guitarist John Williams
  9. Horatiu Radulescu: Piano Concerto "The Quest"
  10. Hummel, Schubert, Schumann: Piano Quintets

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